Inside the Red Zone
by Euregatto
Summary: Walking the road to falling in love is a wonderful experience – unless of course you're Annie Leonhardt, in which case it's a lot more disastrous than it should be, and everyone else gets caught in the crossfire. -Eren x Annie [rated M for ages 16 and up]
1. The Escapades of a Teenage Heart Throb

**A/N**: I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus, but I'm not really busy until next month so I'm occupying my time with as much writing as I can produce (and since I've been obsessed with SnK lately...). This is my first attempt at an actual Eren x Annie romance. I fail at maintaining serious stories; I literally always have to make it sassy or humorous somewhere between the line. Since I'm still getting used to writing with the characters I decided... let's make this easier by playing off of Annie's interactions with Eren in the manga (you know, because he actually does make her smile).

But anyway, review and let me know what you thought!

* * *

**Inside the Red Zone**

An Eren x Annie one-shot by: **Euregatto**

* * *

Annie doesn't know what love is. That, right off the bat, is her father's fault.

Since she was able to walk he taught her to fight and defend herself, which unfortunately included being home schooled – secluded from the other kids in her district, learning to push away conflicting, unnecessary emotions, and taking to the world as a lone wolf with rocks in her heart and nothing but disinterest in her features. She is stone now, and there is nothing that can break down her walls.

Well, y'know, then Eren fucking Yeager had to just waltz right in to her life.

It started with that bastard Reiner who was in the mood to push her buttons, nothing new really, but instead of approaching her with his fists held high he shoved some other boy in her direction. And she dare say – he was something else entirely, and kind of cute. Not cute enough to save him from having his ass handed to him, but she still felt her heart beat a little more firmly then she was used to, and her face seemed warm when he complimented her on just about everything she did that impressed him. On one occasion he had even asked if she was sick and touched her forehead because, "You look really hot. Do you have a fever?" Oblivious, sweet, now on the ground Eren.

This is, to her, a foreign feeling in need of being studied.

Her immediate source of understanding it falls first on actually attempting to engage in a conversation with the girls in her unit. Their eccentric gossiping about the cutest boys, the hottest boys, and how annoying it is to have dirt under their nails eventually grates on her nerves with comments like "Isn't Armin such a sweetheart?" and "Did you guys see Reiner today? He's so hot I want to melt ice cream on him!" and even worse yet, the remark that was spoken by the one and only Mina who _knew_ she could get away with such an accusation: "Aw Annie, you and Eren would make such a cute couple!"

"Not gonna happen."

"Then why are you blushing? _Hmm?_"

Beating him into a bloody pulp is apparently _cute_ now.

For the sake of her sanity she then resorts to plan B, her back-up that falls on studying two of her classmates. Watching Franz and Hannah shyly interacting from afar, however, doesn't quell her worries either. It is literally like observing two deer contemplate if they're perfect partners for each other and prance around in circles endlessly. It's sad. It's awkward. It's, according to Mina, _adorable_.

Why is everything cute all of sudden? Is this seriously what being a real girl means? She assumes so.

In fact, as soon as she sees Eren coming towards her, expression bright and emerald eyes alive with a joy that puts a small smile on her face, she's sure the heart palpitations in her chest aren't what normal people should be experiencing. Hannah and Franz don't get this, do they?

Annie keeps telling herself, over and over and over again as she flips Eren into submission, that she's just been hanging around the other girls – _especially_ Mina – for way too long.

* * *

Dinner tonight is pork, although Annie was never raised on meat aside from chicken so she finds herself separating it from the rest of her meal with her fork. To be honest – she isn't interested in eating at all, really, so pushing the food around proves to be to best option for occupying her time. Mina, at her side, is discussing about her day with Reiner as a sparring partner despite Annie's obvious lack of caring; Annie had been paired with Eren because, according to dear old Shadis: "it's hilarious to watch you beat the ever-living shit out of him."

_Hilarious_, he said with a straight face.

It hadn't gone well though. Her leg was still tender from straining it two days before and a simple touch from him nearly made her keel over, and once when she pinned him he had accidentally elbowed her in the face, throwing her off her entire game (otherwise he'd be dead). The day had thankfully been concluded when she flipped him and he landed on the back of his neck, as always, and they haven't been close enough for another fight since.

_Damn him and everything he does to me._

Franz and Hannah are now sharing their accounts of the day, but Annie is even less interested in that than her dinner. Seriously, how in the hell did she even wind up sitting with these guys? They make her want to kick kittens. And she _loves_ cats.

Annie pushes the tray away in disgust and turns her azure glare to the table across from them against the wall. Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Sasha, Thomas, Connie… Eren had certainly gathered a whole crew of unfortunate souls. But she knows they're drawn to him like birds to crumbs because he's such a likeable guy. She's drawn to him for a-whole-nother reason entirely.

"Are you OK?"

Mina's question catches Annie off guard and she nearly jumps. "Oh, I'm… fine. Don't know what makes you think otherwise."

"Maybe it has something to do with the stories I heard from earlier today," Reiner remarks from the other end of the table. Everyone glances at him except for Annie. If she looks she'll end up breaking his neck. "Seems a little someone has a thing for the Yeager boy!"

Annie visibly stiffens. "I do _not_."

"That's not what Bernholdt said." The man parallel to Reiner chokes on his drink. "He saw you guys during combat training and how easy you were with each other."

"No I didn't!" He shoots back. "Stop making things up!"

"Oh, I'm not." Reiner turns his body to face her, glancing around Mina. "You two are seriously the epitome of young love. Do your hands shake when you spar? Or does your heart beat into your throat when you meet his gaze?" He wraps his arm around the poor girl next to him and tries to pitch his voice so it's not so deep. "Oh, Annie my love, your hair is so golden in the sunlight! And my Annie, what blue eyes you have! It's like staring into the sky!"

"Reiner let go of me!"

Annie's fists are clenched so tightly they're shaking. He _knows_ how she feels about the topic, as aggravatingly playful as he's trying to be. "Shut the fuck up!"

"Knock it off," Franz interjects finally, gesturing to the older blonde with his fork. "You're antagonizing her. If she breaks something I'm not bringing you over to the infirmary."

"I'm just curious!" He grins manically. "What does he taste like? Mint?" He releases Mina who punches him painlessly in the chest. "And is his grip firm? He's probably been with another girl before… but tell me, is he a good kisser?" He doesn't anticipate the sudden projectile that is her tray; it connects with his forehead, knocking him off the bench and to the floor.

**_"I said shut the fuck up!"_** She screams, silencing the room. All eyes are turn to them.

"Way to go asshole," Mina scolds, leaning over a still dazed Reiner whose head is swelling from the impact. He promptly lays still.

Boots scuff the floor as Eren jumps up and darts for them. "Reiner!" He kneels down to the older boy's side, Bernholdt taking the other. Eren slaps his friend's cheek. "Hey! Answer me, Reiner!…Holy shit, Annie! You knocked him out cold!" He glances up at her, emerald stare wide with shock.

An acute stab of pain jabs into her chest – Reiner was being an ass, yes, but maybe she did take it too far – because that look is one her father had given her once, years ago, when she had stolen some meat from a store because they couldn't afford it that month. It was one of disappointment, anger, hurt; she never wanted, after that, to see that look again. But here it is, in _Eren's_ eyes.

His awe ebbs into a grin. "That's fucking _awesome!_ This asshole's had that coming to him for weeks!"

Annie isn't quite sure what to feel in that moment – pride, guilt, embarrassment, _relief_ – but the blood instantly rushes to her face and she looks elsewhere, brushing her bangs out of her diverted eyes. Mina and Hannah notice, of course, which earns her a set of muffled giggles. "Eh, I could've hit him harder."

"Only if you wanted to kill him." Everyone freezes and dares to look at the source of the voice – the one and only Keith Shadis. His hardened gaze sends a chill through the room. "That, Miss Leonhardt, has just earned you twenty laps around the entire training field! And since you found this amusing, _Yeager_, you can join her! **_NOW GET GOING!_**"

The duo sprints out the door before their punishment worsens. Everyone else pretends to go back to eating and leaves Reiner exactly where he is.

* * *

He wakes up because the terrorizing, hellish chaos in his dream is all too real – _the way he tries to save his mother again and again but her blood is still on his hands and on his face_ – and his mind and body are too spent to deal with another restless cycle.

Eren rakes his fingers through his matted hair, detangling the extended chocolate locks with ease. He groggily sits up in the bed, a top bunk he has to share with Samuel thanks to the randomized placing (not that Armin's doing any better, since he is stuck with Bernholdt who tosses in his sleep and takes up the whole mattress); the thin blanket falls away from his bare chest, exposing ripped muscles, noticeable bloodied scratches, swelling bruises, and violet bites. Tarnished gold from the rising sun streams through the window and dances across the hard wood floor, setting it aglow like fire.

The peaceful form beside him inhales sharply, shifts a little, and then settles again.

"Shit," he utters under his breath, clawing at the crust gluing his eyes shut. He knows he's up earlier than he had hoped, but his nightmare this time was particularly nasty (the screams of his mother sound so real and reverberate inside of his skull), so he has no intentions of lying down again. The only option? Climbing over Samuel – who thankfully sleeps like a box of fucking rocks – and going outside to see if he can occupy himself for the next few hours. _And to think we finally have a day off, no air horns at four in the morning or the clanging of pans one hour after curfew._

He dresses into his uniform because that's all that is in his drawer, unfortunately, and he treks towards the door, legs still on fire from yesterday's sprint with Annie. Armin is snoozing on his side facing the aisle, teetering on the edge of the bed because Bernholdt is taking up the rest of the space and then some, arm folded over the blonde's shoulder. Eren shakes his head and leaves, shutting the notched door quietly behind him.

He traverses the station to the field. Mikasa isn't up yet, thankfully; he just wants some time to himself and his thoughts, which is rather difficult to have when you're constantly being shadowed by your own worry-wart sister.

His emerald gaze spots something, however, in his direct line of vision – a familiar figure takes shape, petite body moving to a familiar tempo as she stretches her limbs wide, chest gradually rising and falling as she inhales the faint, mingled scent of dew, dirt, and wildflowers. Eren remembers her smell like he does the back of his hand; lemons. Lemons and sugar, specifically. He doesn't think she knows this, though, and he certainly doesn't have the heart to tell her.

"Annie?" He remarks and she looks at him, normally stoic expression softening as he approaches. "Hey, are you alright?"

She tucks a stray wisp of saffron hair behind her ear. "Despite the fact that there are colossal cannibals threatening to break down the wall at any second… of course I am." Her sarcasm doesn't falter, not even around him. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, you're just… up awfully early is all." He massages the bruise on his shoulder when it begins to ache beneath the thick material of his shirt. "I'm still sore from that beat-down you gave me yesterday."

"No surprise there," she dead-pans.

He stares down at her curiously, eyes wide and gentle despite his normally violent streak. "Is your leg doing any better?"

"Yes."

"That's good…" He moves closer to her, gradually, to avoid sparking a fight. "So what are you doing out here, anyway?"

Annie's too short bang falls out again and she finds herself tucking it back reflexively. "Why is it any of your concern what I do, Eren?" She turns on the ball of foot, cerulean gaze elsewhere. He wants to snap back at her but it won't do any good – she'll just floor him with a single throw and keep at it.

"Listen, Annie, since we're alone there's something I need to ask you." She looks at him, but doesn't respond. That's all the permission he needs. "Don't punch me for this, but I need to know – why won't you let anyone close? You don't hang out with anyone unless they're sparring with you. For fuck's sake, you broke Connie's nose when he gave you a pat on the shoulder – a _friendly_ pat, might I add!"

Annie scoffs. "I don't _need_ anyone. It's easier if I'm alone. And I punched him because he was pushing my buttons beforehand knowing that _no one_ is allowed to touch me." She pauses. "Without my permission, at least."

"You let _me_ touch you."

She frowns. "Only because we spar a lot."

"You know what I mean."

By the way her features tense he knows that he hit a nerve. She doesn't like the remember the event from last month – when her gear jammed and she hit a tree mid-swing, falling to the floor thirty feet below…right onto Eren who swung down and slid along the slick leaves, catching her against his chest to break her fall and one of his ribs. He had held her until she stopped shaking from the pain and the confusion and the **_fear_**. He had been scolded by her for it later that night, but she didn't even dare to raise her fist in his direction.

He still wonders why she's mad at him for it, which is what brought up his inquiry in the first place.

"I didn't let you," she says finally, shoving her hands into her pockets. "But I didn't have a choice… Also, the lack of a punch was my payment for helping me."

"More like saving you."

"Get off your high-horse, Orphan Boy." She watches him wince as the comment hits home. A pang of guilt fills her gut; his eyes harden as he remembers something she will probably never understand, and in turn her glare softens. "Sorry, Eren, I didn't mean it. I never mean it." She knows deep down that she _should_ mean it – she _has_ to drive him away, just as her dad always told her.

_"Treat the whole world as your enemy. You can't get close to **anyone**, baby girl."_

_I can't help it, Dad… I like being close to him._

A smug grin etches its way into his face, starting with a twinge of the corner of his lips that curve up on one side, and his adjacent eyebrow arches in synch. "You have a weird nose"—her fists clench within her pockets—"and I think it makes you pretty." Now her teeth grind together and her glare narrows dangerously, but he doesn't notice because he's still aggravatingly smug. "_That_ I do mean."

He doesn't register that's she moving at him until he hits the ground back-first, lungs collapsing and skull connecting with a misplaced rock. She stomps on his chest as he tries to sit up. "I'm getting real tired of your shit, Yeager. We're not friends, so quit acting like you're entitled to-!"

She doesn't expect him to kick out her knee so she topples; he fists her collar and traps her beneath him, legs locking down her own and his hands pinning her arms above her head by her wrists. "Mikasa taught me that one," he remarks when her lips part to form a question.

"Not bad," she whispers, shifting beneath him. His mass is sandwiching her to the ground – not that she minds, really; he's warm and has a thick, attractive musk that tingles her nose when she breathes. The outermost flesh of their noses brush lightly. She knows that he's leaning in closer than she's comfortable with, though.

"Really?" He retorts, expression brightening. "I've been practicing for a week!"

She rolls her eyes upwards, squirming beneath his weight because he's leaning a little too heavily on her hips. "Yay for you. Now I think you should let me go before I shove my fist down your throat, Orphan." This time she means it – and she says it _bitterly_. But much to her dismay his smile – or _grin_, rather – doesn't falter. In fact, he still seems caught up in his little victory over her. _Way to stroke his ego, Annie._

He suddenly gazes down at her, expression falling blank. "Do you want to keep sparring?"

"No. I _want_ you to _get off of me_."

She makes a move to shove him off but he captures her lips, instantly stilling her. Heat spreads across her body, to her cheeks and to her stomach, spanning to her fingertips and toes. She involuntarily presses back, parting her jaws and allowing his tongue to glide in. He's not bad at it – not bad at all. His hands grapple her waist and she grips his lanky hair, moaning into his mouth as he massages her tongue with his. She wants to fight back, to tell him to stop, to push him off; but she can't. Her body is disconnected, submissive, unresponsive to what she wants but eager for his hands to touch something other than her hips.

She's as equally scared as she is content, and Annie Leonhardt does _not_. _Get_. **_Scared_**.

_I'm sorry, Dad…_

He breaks away to trail kisses along her jaw and down her neck, finding a sensitive bundle of nerves along her pulse point. She immediately dismisses her emotions and wraps her legs – now freed from his loosening grasp – around his waist, growling in her throat.

_I just can't help myself…_

"You learn this from your sister too?" She mocks, sighing into his mouth when he kisses her again.

"Nope," he answers after pulling back. "This is _all_ Jean."

She laughs light-heartedly at one of the first jokes he's made since they've met; the gentle timbre of her voice feels genuine in her chest and tastes bittersweet on her tongue. Then she remembers – she hasn't laughed in _years_. Probably since her father disappeared when she was nine, even. This boy brings out the best in her. She hates it almost as much as she likes it.

She wonders if this is what sparks love. "We _both_ know he has it out for Marco."

Eren leans down for another kiss, brushing their swollen lips lightly together.

She suddenly tightens her grip around his waist and throws him off with such force he can't catch himself and lands on his back; he tries to jump to his feet but she pins him down by kneeling into his upper arms and resting her weight on his torso. "Shit!" He hisses, thrusting his knee up against her back. She's too far forward for him to reach and he merely ends up tapping her spine. "Fucking hell, Annie. That was uncalled for!"

"Called for." He flushes when she crosses her arms and hovers over him, expression as serious as it always is despite the sudden clarity in her cobalt gaze. "We're not the only ones awake now. Look up."

He tilts his head back and observes the moving forms of several of their classmates coming for the field; they're recognizable as the ones who always go on early morning jogs before roll call (at first it was theorized that they were trying to keep fit and make the many mile run later into the day easier, but after a while it didn't prove true). "That certainly ruins the moment," he mutters under a sigh. "Alright, let me up."

"I'm not going to willingly move."

"Of course you're not."

"You need to work for it." She fists his hair and pulls taught, earning a noticeable grimace of pain. "And you only have one option – so I suggest you act quickly, or they'll"—she nods in the direction of the others—"notice us."

"Not like they're gonna get the wrong idea or anythi—_OWOWOWOW_ stop pulling so hard!"

Annie feels his hands on her thighs, and an acute stab of searing pain rockets up her body when he jabs a pointed rock into the pressure point below her hip. She cries out, leaning enough weight to that side in reflexive attempt to grab at it and he bucks, throwing her off. "FUCK!" She snaps, sitting up and cradling her throbbing leg. "Why the fuck would you do that?!"

"I'm sorry!" He exclaims and kneels at her side. "I didn't mean to do it so hard! Armin showed me where a sensitive pressure point on the leg is that's almost impossible to guard during combat and that was the only thing I could do!"

Annie snarls under her breath. "Dammit, Eren!"

"I'm really sorry," he reiterates, moving an arm to her back. "I wasn't thinking! OK, just, uh… walk it off! Come on I'll take you to the infir– _OWOWOWOW_ ANNIE STOP!"

Annie tells herself, as she flips him into submission despite her leg, that it's hard not to fall in love with Eren Yeager.


	2. A Matter of Miscommunication

**IMPORANT A/N**: _Definitely_ going to make this a story now, because it's so much fun to write!

**Not so important A/N**: Follow me on tumblr if you want to see some updates I'll be posting during the progress of the next chapter (**_link is on my page_**). And thank you for so many reviews and favs last chapter, I'm flattered beyond words! Every review made my day ^_^ Song used: _Blindess_ by Metric. **_Let me know what you thought of this chapter!_**

* * *

**Inside the Red Zone**

An Eren x Annie no-longer-one-shot by: **Euregatto**

* * *

The reason Annie doesn't believe in fairy tales is blatantly, and quite simply, this: they aren't _realistic_.

If a boy kisses a girl they don't just live happily ever after and skip off into the sunset, hand-in-hand. What happens next? Do they get married? Do they get divorced? How many children do they have? Does one of them die of a gruesome, horrendous plague? Does the other cheat on their spouse with that sexy doctor down the road? (Her overthinking is probably why her father stopped reading her bedtime stories). Seriously, no one just goes on to live an absolutely perfect, carefree life.

Annie, however, is also envious of these unrealistic endings.

She, a girl, kissed Eren, a boy, who's probably her Prince Charming because no one in this society can be rich aside from the king. As much as she would love to merrily skip off into the horizon with him, she can't for many, many reasons. She doesn't see Hansel and Gretel fighting off colossal cannibals. No, they get a witch. And house made of fucking _candy_. Oh, yes, and dear old Jack gets a single giant. ONE GIANT. In the _sky_. If Titans lived in the sky humans would be the happiest race on the whole planet.

Regardless, these characters have it easy.

They especially get to live a happy ending because they aren't friends with – drum roll please – Reiner Braun, that guy you have a love-hate relationship with because he smokes like a burning building and rubs his swelled ego all up in your face. As much as he's willing to protect your life, he's also bent on ruining it for his own personal amusement.

So, of course, that night during the monthly camp out he decides to bring to the spotlight his results – the conclusion that his week of snooping around trying to find the next most interesting thing has brought upon him. Annie knows there's something up because he has that smug expression on his normally stoic face. It means, to anyone who's been a victim of his gargantuan mouth, that he is about to make a big revelation.

The night is particularly chilly so everyone crowds in clusters around their fires. Annie meant to sit with normal people – and by normal she doesn't mean Reiner, but that's unfortunately _exactly_ who she's next to.

He leans toward her. "So, Annie…"

She pretends to be disinterested and plays with the vegetables she had roasted on a stick. They're tasteless though. Her gaze casts up to the ring of friends near them and she catches Eren's eye. He smiles, gently waving to her; Jean glances over to see who he's gesturing to and she briskly looks at her food again. Reiner had noticed.

Taking her silence as his permission to proceed, he, for once, lowers his voice. "I was right. You _do_ have a thing for Eren." Her frozen glare snaps up to meet him like 'don't you fucking dare', but he just continues. "Saw you guys behind the shed yesterday. He really is a good kisser, isn't he?"

She makes a move to punch him right in his kisser but Mina's suddenly squealing her ear. "My little Annie is a girl!"

These fairy tale characters also get to live a happy ending because they don't make the mistake of sitting next to Mina Karolina. A handful of pairs of eyes turn in their direction and Annie quickly grabs her friend's shoulders. "Shut up!" She hisses through her teeth.

Reiner turns to Jean and points to Eren, then to her, and makes a motion with the opening of his fist and opposing finger. The other boy snorts behind his hand.

"Will you knock it off?!" She mutters, but every word is laced with poison.

Mina pats her back. "Aw, don't be so uptight Annie! I think it's adorable! There's nothing to be embarrassed about!"

"Yes but it also doesn't have to be everyone else's business!" She glares down at her lap. Something within her pulses and she strokes a genius idea – an idea that just might be one of the most original plans she's devised in years. She gradually returns to reality to find Reiner making snide remarks about her, not that she's been listening, and Franz scolding him in return before he gets another concussion like last week.

Annie wedges the bare end of the stick into the dirt and shoots up, hands in her pockets. "You know Reiner, you've been staring at Christa for a while now."

He instantly flushes. "Oh, uh, y-yeah. She's cute."

"Maybe she should know that. How could you expect to make your move if she remains clueless?"

Reiner has never looked so perpetually disturbed in his life – it borders pure terror, like she's holding a knife against his neck. He sweats suddenly, teeth clenching, body going rigid in his spot. "D-Don't you dare!"

_Bingo._

She steps up to the other ring of people. "Hey, Christa," she greets.

The young girl glances up at her. "Oh, Annie! Hi!"

"The she-creature speaks."

"Ymir…" Christa sends a glare in her friend's direction, which is the equivalent to being stared down by a hamster, and Ymir just shrugs. "Anyway, what's up?"

"Listen," Annie starts, coming across as innocent as possible. "My pal Reiner is incredibly shy, so I came over on his behalf to save him some humiliation. He just wanted to say that he"—the next thing she knows her feet are leaving the ground and Reiner is literally throwing her onto his shoulder—"PUT ME DOWN!"

"I'msorryforbotheringyou," he apologizes to their group with lightning speed, "sorrysorrylackofsleepshe'scrazyIknowokbyenow!"

She beats her fists against his back. "Put me down you ox!"

He carries her right back to their spots. "Nothing to see here; everyone go back to your fires!" When they reach their circle again he sets her down. They wordlessly, and quite complacently, take their seats. Mina is snorting as she tries her damned hardest to hold back her laughs. Hannah has her face in Franz's shoulder, clearly muffling her giggles, and he's looking at them like he's a father who found out his kids vandalized a morgue. Bernholdt just blinks.

"You're an idiot, Reiner," Franz declares.

Eren is watching them cautiously from his spot, completely ignoring Armin who's entertaining Connie, Sasha and Thomas with the equations from class they didn't understand. Mikasa notices her brother's staring just as Jean leans towards her. "I think your brother has a thing for Leonhardt."

Mikasa furrows her brow. "A thing?"

"You know, a _thing_. _A thing!_ …Feelings, Mikasa." Jean leans away from her and gets right in Eren's line of view. "So are you and Annie a thing now?"

Eren frowns. "A what?"

"You have _got_ to be kidding me…" He reaches for a rock and chucks it through the fire, hitting Thomas in the knee. The other boy glances at him. "Tom, help me out here. Do you know what having a thing for someone means? Eren's as clueless as a doornail."

Now all eyes turn to the boy in question. "It means you have these special feelings for someone," Thomas says after contemplating it, "and if you're a thing with that someone, it means you guys are together. You basically make out any chance you can get – or, if you're really into someone, you'll go a little further than that. Sometime later you'll move in together, then get married and have like six kids."

"Oh," is all Eren responds with.

"So?" Jean asks hopefully. "Are you a thing with Annie?"

"Yeah. It seems so."

Sasha nearly chokes on her bread. "You're dating _Annie?!"_

"She has feelings?" Connie whispers to Armin who just shrugs like 'I guess so'.

Jean snorts unattractively. "

Eren completely ignores them; focusing on Annie again, and when Mikasa peers over Annie is making gestures about shooting Reiner. _Oh no, _she thinks as a chill runs down her spine, and a ghastly look contorts her face, _they're thing is to kill Reiner! They're going to murder him in cold blood! What should I do? Should I say something? _When she glances back at her brother and again in the other direction, Annie's now making gestures of shooting herself. _They're going to kill themselves after they kill him so they won't have to suffer the consequences later!_

"Don't do it!" She exclaims suddenly, taking his hands in hers. "Don't do it, Eren, it's not worth it!"

Eren flushes. "Uh, wow, OK, what's gotten into you?"

"Your life isn't worth it!"

Armin readies himself in case he has to hold her back like last month, when Sasha stole her bread and she nearly tore the auburn a new one. "Mikasa, chill out."

"Is there something wrong with me having a thing with Annie?" Eren is kind of really afraid of his sister right now.

"Yes!" She snaps, shaking their connected fists. "I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for this _thing!_ Promise me you won't, Eren! Please!"

"Okaaay," Eren starts, brushing her off. "Listen… You're a little high maintenance today so-"

A sudden noise fills the silence. It's the strumming of a guitar and gentle singing from a girl in a group several yards away; she's doesn't use her voice often, even though she should, and the lyrics are along the lines of _"__all the survivors singing in the rain / I was the one with the world at my feet / Got us a battle, leave it up to me…"_

Annie feels lips against her ear and a hand takes hers. "Dance with me," the voice coerces, other hand finding her hip. "Come on."

She leans her head back into his shoulder. "I don't dance." Somewhere in the back of her mind a memory slips through – her father teaches her to dance to the miscellaneous music coming from a flute nearby. But it's so far out of her remembrance she doesn't think she can even _guess_ as to what some of the moves are. "It's been such a long time… I don't even remember how."

Eren scoffs. "Then I'll teach you"—_just like Dad_—"so take my hand." Giving in she accepts his gesture and he pulls her to her feet, locking one arm around her waist. "Let me take the lead," he utters, moving to the steady tempo of the girl still singing at the fire, "and just follow."

Mikasa is watching them dance with her chin on her fists, silently fuming despite her blank features. She is planning her counterattack – they wouldn't dare kill him, though, especially not with so many trainees around. She would have to take action before anything happened… but when? How could she stop them?

"So…" Jean starts, scooting over to her side. "Mikasa… you want to-?"

"I have to stop them," she seethes and gyrates to face him so suddenly he almost literally drops from a heart attack. "You'll help me, won't you?"

"Help you with what?"

"Stopping Eren and Annie's _thing_. I have to protect Eren, that's all there is to it."

Jean rubs at his chin. "I don't think she's that bad."

"I must put an end to their vile plot…"

"Wow, you really are wound up today. But go ahead, I'm all ears."

Annie catches Mikasa devising some sort of plot with Jean and lowers her voice, leaning towards Eren's ear. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"You dragged me up so insistently. Someone die?"

He scoffs and spins her around. "Mikasa thinks the whole _me and you together_ scenario is gonna be the end of the world." Off handedly he adds, glancing down at himself, "I'm a little hot. Was this a bad shirt choice?"

Annie keeps a straight face for anyone watching them, but her voice is a suggestive purr. "I think I'd like you better shirtless."

His face flares up. "Uh, duly noted…"

They leave the conversation at that, and Reiner has a victory speech about always being right sometime after the song ends. Mikasa and Jean behave strangely for the rest of the night.

* * *

The forest is alive with the melodic chirps of songbirds, the rays of saffron sunlight that filter through the entwined canopy overhead and set the emerald underbrush on fire, and the moss that creeps up the trees like freezing ice. Branches quake as Annie Leonhardt impacts them one at a time, leaping down the thicket and weaving easily through the leaves. She hits the lowest branch and pauses to listen to the chorus of sounds around her.

_I'm safe for now._

They had the day to take the gear out for a free spin around the forest with no instructions from Shadis. Reiner's idea of a training exercise was for everyone to play "tag", starting with Millius as "it", and after a brief explanation from him about the rules because she lacked a fun childhood, she instantly wanted no part of their stupid game, which is why she's here – _away from everyone else._

The tree shakes suddenly and before she can react Eren appears in front of her. "Boo!"

He's swinging upside down from his gear, eye level with her and goofy grin plastered on his face. She rolls her eyes but smiles regardless. "Oo, scary. I'm terrified."

"I got you something," he remarks, "so close your eyes." She does. "Don't peak!" She can feel him brushing his familiar fingertips along her cheek and ear (which are noticeably warmer than before), and his breath is unusually hot against her skin; he cups her cheeks then plants a soft kiss on her lips. "There."

Her eyelids flutter open. There is a yellow wildflower nestled in the crevice between her ear and skull, petals soft against her pallid skin and stem woven into her hair.

"And now you're a girl," he quips.

"You of all people should know my gender, Eren." She snakes her fingers into his thick chocolate hair, giving it her usual tug. He doesn't flinch at the pain anymore. "Now your next task is to make me a woman."

His cheeks set on fire; he stumbles briefly over his response, earning a light laugh from the blonde. "U-uh… I can't right now."

"And why not?"

"Because I'm running."

"From who?"

He has this smirk playing with his lips, the smug expression she hates because it means he's up to no good – as usual – but also makes him adorable, unfortunately for her and fortunately for him. Utilizing his cords he kisses her nose and reel upwards, landing on the branch overhead. "You! Tag, you're it!"

"I don't want to play," she declares, shoving her hands into her pockets. "That's why I'm this far from the group."

His emerald gaze holds this casual sense of playfulness and curiosity. "Loosen up a bit!" He coerces, reeling down to her level. His arms hook around her waist, pinning her close to him, lips to her brow. "Come on, you can't be mature all the time."

"Or I can remain mature and you can remain immature, and we can complement each other."

He scoffs into her hair. "Just trust me."

_Trust, huh?_

She suddenly lurches up, mouth colliding with his and body moving to the familiar tempo of his own as her knee comes up rub at the inside of his thigh. "Or we can save the game for later," he utters into her.

He pins her against the battered rigid wood with his body as she wraps her legs around him, lips hot just for her, hands exploring her waist and sneaking up under her sweatshirt. She emits this inhumane sound into his mouth that's practically a purr; he bucks his hips against hers just to earn it again, along with some harsh pants. They're intense, as always, but it's almost impossible to get alone time like this with so many people around – at his best, he can sneak in a kiss right before dinner, when everyone is changing out of their uniforms.

They're deprived, for the most part.

"We shouldn't do this now," she mutters somewhere between the lines.

"Why not?"

"Someone's going to – _ah!_ – wonder where we went. You know Reiner will take this to our graves." She adjusts herself against the wall as he pulls back, lips to her ear but his hands still working to loosen her clothes.

"And who the hell cares?"

"We will when don't hear the end of it."

"Fair enough." He massages her sides, fingernails scraping against the length of the scar she had earned last month from Bernholdt's broken cord that whipped around and into the right half of her ribs. She groans in her throat, vibrating every bone in her chest, and corkscrews her eyes shut to embrace the sensations like fire on her skin. His voice soothes her tense muscles as he says, sensually, "but we'll have to worry about that later, won't we?"

His touch suddenly disappears.

She blinks, swollen lips parted in awe as she watches him step back along the branch. "Eren?"

"If you want a _later_ you'll have to prove it." His cords snap out with a flick of his wrist, impacting the tree several yards away. "Tag, Annie, you're it!" He zip-lines into the forest, disappearing into the thicket of the canopy.

She grunts a small "fine" and follows suit. Her smaller frame allows her to catch up quickly, twirling acrobatically through the branches and swinging mere inches above the ground. He appears within ear shot directly ahead; multiple shadows dart through the underbrush around her as he passes through a clearing. Reiner shoots into her peripheral vision, tailed by Mikasa and Connie. It's a wonder how Mikasa could understand a concept like 'fun'.

"Annie's it!" Eren relays.

"Annie's it!" Mina echoes, crossing along his path and diving down into the thick understory; her exclamation reverberates through the trees, passing amongst the trainees. Annie curses under her breath as her friend _and_ boyfriend disappear from sight.

Eren descends in Mina's wake and shoots back up into the emergent just as Nack passes right by Annie, the leaves he knocks loose shrouding her vision. She draws to a stop against a trunk, peering around briskly for any signs of an easier target. Armin glides under her and she somersaults into the air, streamlining behind him. Just as she suspected he naturally turns and zips towards Eren who was hiding under the ceiling of branches above.

"Found you!" She snaps, taking after him when he reflexively shoots up into the overhead layers. He's howling with laughter in pure excitement and anticipation, a sound that puts a small smile on her lips.

Reiner appears to her left, heavy mass snapping too thin branches as he glides within several meters of her. "I've never seen have fun before!" He remarks snidely. She darts for him, fingers just skimming the seams of his jackets as he twirls out of the way. "And nice flower! Never knew Eren had a taste in the forest's floral."

He dives into the maze of oak wood trunks and she turns her attention to Jean and Sasha who come flying in on either side of her. She swings after them with sudden irritation in her chest and shoots after Jean when Sasha dances out of the path, cartwheeling through the air with an eccentric squeal. Annie releases a burst of gas that propels her forward enough to get within Jean's reach.

He arcs around a tree just as Bernholdt crosses into view. She hits him in the shoulder and speeds off. "Bernholdt's it!" She calls out.

Jean passes over Thomas crouched on a low branch. "Bert's it!" The brunet exclaims, disappearing into the shrubbery.

Annie notices that Bernholdt is right behind her and she drops into a steep dive, twirling with her arms extended to slice through the air and into the entwining leaves. She snaps her cords out just in time to slow her descent and rolls along the ground, over and up to her feet. Above her she can hear the rebounding comments and laughs of her fellow trainees.

That's when Eren hits the grass beside her, digging his boot into the dirt to grind to a halt. "See!" He chirps, knitting his fingers into hers. "It's tons of fun!"

"I haven't had fun in a long time," she mutters, adjusting the flower in her hair. "I'm not exactly the type to have many friends."

"Well, you have friends now." He briefly leans his lips to hers. "And you have me, of course."

"Well that sucks."

"Har-har. Tell you what… let's have some more fun. Meet me outside the boy's quarters tonight after sundown, and we'll get even with Reiner." He pokes her gently with his elbow. "I think it's time someone put him in his place."

Annie raises her eyebrow quizzically. "I'm listening."

High above them Mikasa and Jean are crouched on parallel branches. "They're moving tonight!" He gasps, glancing at her. "We have to stop them before it happens! Let's commence with plan A!"

Mikasa nods. _Don't worry Eren, I'll make sure this **thing** doesn't happen… I promise._


	3. I Got 99 Problems and Mikasa's Every One

**IMPORANT A/N**: A special thank you to Arkevil for cheering me up at my worst Borderline moments... and annoying the fuck out of me to get this done. She inspires me to keep going when I'm too lazy or despondent. So does Prima Malum... when he isn't distracting me with Guilty Crown and Kill la Kill you wonderful, heartless bastard.

**Not so important A/N**: And to Salaeren, who was not present at all during the making of this chapter because he was too busy tossing his salads.  
Follow me on tumblr if you want to see some updates I'll be posting during the progress of the next chapter (**_link is on my page_**). And thank you for so many reviews and favs last chapter, I'm sorry this took so long! Every review made my day ^_^ _Let me know what you thought of this chapter!_

_...Gahddammit Sue..._

* * *

**Inside the Red Zone**

An Eren x Annie story-full-of-obvious-procrastination by: **Euregatto**

* * *

Annie has always had poor experiences with the things that go bunk in the night (such as the time she thought the thunderstorm outside was an actual monster, or when that guy tried to mug her while she was walking home later than normal – needless to say, he limped off with two broken arms and what was left of his pride), and as a result, she has a childish phobia of thunderstorms backed by her fear of the dark.

She figures she should give Eren a personal kick for making her trek through the midnight hours by herself, but she's been itching to get even with Reiner, and as a heavy sleeper moving now when he wouldn't stir to them would be better than never.

Her sapphire gaze turns up to view the sky above her; it's an obsidian void painted with stars, and even the full moon can't illuminate through the trees. _Nighttime, _she tells herself as she tosses her hood up over her head and steps into the nearest spot of light ignited by the torches lining the path. Somewhere in the back of her mind she tells herself to keep calm.

_It's just the dark… it's just the dark…_

An owl hoots so suddenly she jumps, biting back a scream. Her immediate reaction is to turn in a random direction and break into an Olympic sprint, but she forces herself to take a deep breath, relax, and press on after giving the feathery bastard nearby her middle finger. It coos again.

_You're Annie Leonhardt. A Lion Heart. Like Dad. You aren't afraid of the dark, the dark is afraid of you…_

A shadow skirts across the path in front of her.

She goes rigid. "H-hello?" Her fingers reach down reflexively for her swords – which aren't there. _I am just making this worse for myself. _She's certainly not prepared to slay her stalker, but if need be she'll floor the assailant and keep going. "Hey, is anyone there? If you don't come out now I'll snap your spine!" This time, nothing happens. Shaking her head, she tromps on.

Something scuffles across the dirt behind her.

"Who is that?!" She barks, whirling around. Despite her irritated expression her heart is slamming into the cage of her chest. "Sasha? Mina? This isn't funny!" The shadow darts to her left again.

_This is exactly why I'm scared of the dark._

She immediately turns towards the boy's shack and breaks into a sprint; her torso flares up but she presses forward, weaving around the cabins she can just barely avoid in the darkness. Eren's silhouette takes shape, much to her relief; he's poised at the foot of the steps, toeing the dirt with his boot patiently. She doesn't even think – she just launches into his arms, nearly knocking them both to the ground.

"Annie!" He gasps, hands on her shoulders. "What the hell?"

She's heaving as the adrenaline surge and overwhelming relief take hold, and stares up at him, body trembling as the fear ebbs into sheer jubilee. "Sorry, sorry… I was heading over and then – and then there was something following me…"

"It's just your imagination," he reassures her, patting her gently on the back. "What, scared of the dark?"

"Uh…"

"…Holy shit. The one and only _Annie Leonhardt _is _scared of the dark."_

She cringes at that. "And maybe thunderstorms."

"OK, _that_ I didn't expect." He pulls back briefly and she cranes her head around to check for the foreign shadows. Eren watches her carefully before sighing reluctantly. "Look, we don't _have_ to do this. I'll walk you back and we can call it a night. I'll just come up with some other plan to get even with Reiner – that hopefully won't include after curfew hours."

"No!" She exclaims and quickly shushes herself. The windows are open, she wouldn't want to wake anyone. "I mean… no, I _want_ to do this."

He quirks an eyebrow. "Alright, only if you want to. Time to commence the plan!" He reaches down for the glass bowl at the edge of the steps, picking it up carefully to avoid spilling the water inside. "Good, it's still warm."

They trek up the porch and into the cabin, creeping by the snoring soldiers until they reach Reiner and Connie's shared upper bed. Reiner sleeps on the outside near the ladder, on his stomach, one hand under the pillow to support his head and the other against the edge of the railing. Annie steps onto the headboard of the bottom bunk shared by Thomas and Nack to hoist herself up, taking the bowl Eren passes her and tucking it against the railing. She takes Reiner's hand –

"Don't you dare."

Eren and Annie freeze in synch, shackles raised, his grasp suddenly on her waist, but her grip on his wrist never leaving. Reiner shifts his head over, nestling back against the pillow, snorting into his sleep.

"Don't you dare take my lunch, Sasha… I'll kill ya…"

Annie exhales her held breath quietly, dipping his fingers down into the warm water, and Eren sets her down by her waist. "Let's go," he whispers. They turn to leave when two figures suddenly stand in the doorway, shadowed out by the firelight across the path. "Shit!"

"It's them!" Annie squeaks quietly, gripping his sleeve. "They were following me!"

"Stop right there," Jean demands. "If you move we'll be forced to take you down."

"What the hell is with you?" Eren seethes, glancing between him and Mikasa.

Mikasa steps forward and they immediately move back. "I'm sorry Eren; I promised Mom I would watch over you. And this thing you have with Annie is going to be the death of you. I don't know what she's put into your head, but this is coming to an end, even if I have to end it myself."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Annie retorts.

"Shut up!" Jean snaps, "You're the one who devised this whole plan!"

Eren furrows his brow. "Actually, I'm the one who came up with it…"

Mikasa gasps, obsidian gaze widening with shock and horror as the brother she had grown up with – the boy who saved her life, taught her to survive in this unforgiving world, gave her a family when she had lost hers – admits to her face his ghastly plot. Gradually her astonishment ebbs into a hardened determination. "I'm sorry Eren, but I must stop you, even if it costs me my life."

"What the actual _fuck_, Mikasa?!" Eren snaps. "What did Jean tell you?!"

"It's not what he told me," she counters, "it's what _she_ told _you_. What do you see in her, Eren, _hm_? What do you see in her that you feel the need to ruin your own life?"

He parts his lips, glancing between them quizzically. "I'm in love with her?"

"In love enough to kill for her?"

"Uh… sure?"

Jean scoffs grimly. "I knew it. This has to end."

Annie wags her head. "Look, I have no idea what you two are trying to say, but it sure as hell isn't making any sense. What do you think is so bad about our relationship? It's healthy. We don't fight and we don't hurt each other. You're acting like we're creating a conspiracy to kill someone."

"But you are!" Jean barks, "And we're going to stop you!"

"Will you guys shut the fuck up?!" Millius snarls from a bottom bunk. "You're having a soap opera in the middle of the night and we're trying to sleep!"

"Holy shit, Reiner! You wet the bed, man!"

Connie's shout stirs the rest of the cabin awake and Reiner sits up with a start, the front of his pants stained with a massive puddle that smells faintly like piss. "What the hell?!" He exclaims, glaring down at the bowl his hand is still wet from, and then turning his gaze to the dating duo below. **_"You." _**Eren and Annie immediately glance at each other, hearts in their throat, realizing they are blocked off from escape by Jean and Mikasa at the door (who seem to suddenly realize, together, that maybe assassination wasn't the initial plan). **_"You two are dead!"_**

"Run!" Eren exclaims, grabbing Annie's hand and sprinting for the window. They launch through, him after her, landing on the grass in synch. Instead of heading for the girl's cabin Eren takes her wrist and guides them down the vast field into the forest, sprinting into the darkness of the nighttime hours, disappearing into the shrubs and out of Reiner's sight.

Eren draws them around a tree, back against the trunk and her against him as they catch their breaths. "Holy shit," he utters breathlessly, "that was… probably a bad idea."

"_Probably?"_

"Well I didn't expect my sociopathic sister to show up! It's not like I planned her appearance!" He peers around the division cautiously before pressing back again, the rigid bark prodding at the thick material of his shirt. "Alright, he didn't follow us."

Annie notes that, in this kind of setting, Eren's a little more attractive than normal. His lips are parted, warmth radiating through his clothes and into her chest, legs tangled with hers. She slides her fingers along the crevice of his chest to his neck, leaning up and guiding him down to meet her. There's an aching in the cage of her chest she can't quite put her finger on as he moves to her familiarity, rocking to the motion of her swaying body, sliding his hands down to her hips.

Without warning he wraps his arms around her slender frame and lifts her up, pinning her against the tree with his body, scraping his teeth along her jawline. She gasps in pure surprise but reflexively hooks her legs around his waist to keep herself suspended.

Eren draws his head back. "Sorry, did I hurt you?"

"No… I'm just a little on edge tonight." She peers over his shoulder into the darkness of the forest, the creeping shadows bleeding along the leaves, the eerie chorus of noises from the insects.

"Look at me." She does, briefly, but her gaze immediately reverts elsewhere to the sound of a falling twig. Eren slides his thumb along her cheek, tucking her loose bangs behind her ear with his wandering fingers, and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Annie, look at me." This time she locks her anxious orbs with his and he smiles, stroking the exposed plain of her neck. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

She leans her head forward, towards his swollen lips. A small smile plays with her features. "Take my mind off of it. Please, Eren… just for a little while."

He wordlessly, and gladly, obeys. His deep kisses are insistent, firm, intent, and she can't do any more than give in to him; let him touch her, allow his hands to freely slide under her sweatshirt, moan as his thigh arcs up to support her by the heat of her torso. "Okay," he says finally when he breaks off for air, fingers popping open the top three buttons of his shirt. "You can have anything and everything you want."

"I want you."

"Then you can have me."

She tosses her head back, gliding her fingers through his hair, moving his skull forward so his scorching lips meet the elongated flesh of her pulse point. "I want you to make me yours."

"Then I'll make you mine." He sucks on the sensitive point of her skin in the crevice of her shoulder. It has her keening against him, arcing her back to press her chest to his, moaning quietly under her breath. "Right here, right now."

"Okay," is all she responds with, and they leave it at that.

Annie Leonhardt will always be scared of the dark, but at least Eren Jaeger will always guide her through.

* * *

Annie doesn't remember when she returned to bed that night, but when she's stirred awake by Mina the next afternoon, she can only groan at the ache between her legs and roll over, pulling the sheet over her head. "Come on you deadbeat," Mina coerces, pulling her bunkmate towards the ladder (which is the equivalent of rolling one hundred-and twenty pounds of Jell-O cooked with molasses), "we have an evening free session with the 3DMG! You can't sleep the day away and not practice with us!"

Annie grumbles something incoherent and sighs into the pillow, struggling to remember how her body operates.

"Come _oooonnn_," Mina whines, dragging Annie by her wrist. "Let's go to lunch at least! You should eat!"

After another ten minutes of Mina's nagging Annie finally complies and lazily dresses, tailing her bunkmate out the door and to the dining hall. The place is in its usual afternoon uproar, but Eren isn't fighting with Jean for once – Reiner has the shorter boy in a headlock, knuckles dragging back and forth through chocolate hair, Eren flailing helplessly against the brute force. "Lemme go!" He snaps, muffled by the forearm hooked around his face. "_Owowowowow_ Reiner stop!"

"I'm gonna scalp you, you little prick!"

"It was a joke!"

"And I'm going to make this as painful as possible! How's _that_ for a joke?!"

Annie exchanges this 'of course they are' kind of look with Mina and reluctantly steps up to them, fingers curling into Reiner's shirt. The blond immediately loosens his hold on the boy in his arms. "Break it up before I break your spine."

"Thank you!" Eren snaps, abruptly yelping when Reiner literally _drops _him to the hard wood floor. _"Son of a shit!"_

"I'm getting back at you," Reiner declares, pointing down to the trainee, "so you better watch yourself, Jaeger!" He shoves by Annie with his shoulder and disappears out the door, fists buried in his pockets, irritation settled like a cloud over his head.

"What's his problem?" Eren hisses.

Annie shrugs offering out her hand to him. "In all fairness to him, it was a _really_ bad idea." He smirks up at her, accepting her gesture and letting her help him to his feet. "Don't worry, he'll get over himself in about a week."

Eren brushes down his pants. "Let's just avoid him until then, shall we?"

"Speaking of avoiding people"—Anne jabs her thumb over her shoulder to Eren's usual table which is, surprisingly, devoid of Jean and Mikasa's presence—"where the hell are Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb?"

"First of all," Eren seethes, "It's _Mikasa_ and Tweedle-Dumb, thank you. Secondly, a certain instructor of ours went to see what all the commotion was in the boy's cabin last night and now they're running laps."

She arcs her eyebrow in piqued interest. "Oh?"

"Whole length of the training grounds until they drop."

"_Oh_."

He nods absently, turning his attention to the window. "They should be coming around in three…two…one… now." Annie diverts her gaze to the panes of glass, waiting patiently for a figure or two to cross through her vision, but after several seconds Eren sighs and moves to his tray sitting in his vacant spot at the table. "They collapsed. Let's go get them before the vultures find them first."

He picks up a loaf of bread and glass of water, moving for the door with the blonde in tow.

Using the tracks that have been embedded in the dirt they follow the prints counter-clockwise for almost ten minutes (Annie at one point makes an inquiry about the duo possibly being dead) before they find Mikasa and Jean sprawled out on the forest floor. Eren kneels down to Mikasa's side, uncapping his canteen and unceremoniously spilling the contents across her face.

She sputters, turning over onto her side and coughing through her raspy throat. "You okay?" Eren asks sympathetically, helping her sit upright and pressing the canteen into her hands.

Mikasa massages the mild ache in her head. "Yes, I'm alright. I didn't realize I passed out."

She gradually sips at the rest of what's in the canteen and Annie moves over to Jean, hands on her knees, gazing down at him apathetically. The blonde picks up a stick and prods the boy's cheek. Jabs his nose. Wedges it into his lips. "I think he's dead."

"Good," Eren returns, handing Mikasa the bread. "You wanna explain what last night was about?"

Mikasa flushes behind her scarf, pressing the loaf against her lips. "I'm sorry about that. I was mistaken… during the camp out last month I saw Annie making a gesture about shooting Reiner, and I thought your _thing_ was that you two were going to murder him and kill yourselves afterwards."

Annie rolls her eyes skyward. "It's called _sarcasm_."

The Eurasian casts her gaze to the ground. "I know that now, at least. I'm more disappointed that I dragged Jean into this."

"He deserves everything that happens to him," Eren declares, trekking over to the collapsed figure and spilling the canteen's liquids over the boy's face.

Jean sits up with a start. His chest heaves for air and he scrambles to his knees, immediately up-chucking the acids in his stomach to the ground. Eren offers him the canteen and he snaps it up with a desperate "give me that!" and downs what's left of it as fast as possible. He wipes his lips with the back of his sleeve. "Son of a bitch, Eren! I just went through hell because of you!"

"You made it out in one piece," Eren seethes back, snatching the empty canister back. "And it's _your_ fault for listening to _Mikasa_ of _all people_."

"I said I was sorry."

Eren returns to his sister's side, kneeling down and offering her his back. "Come on, I'll carry you to the dining hall." She wordlessly hooks her arms around his neck and he hoists her up, tucking his arms under her legs. "_Ugh_, you're heavier than you look, you know. Why must you always be a pain in my ass?"

Mikasa lowers her chin to his shoulder. "Because your ass always needs to be watched." She immediately wishes she could inhale her words back in her lungs. "Wait, _that's_ not what I meant!"

Annie scoffs behind her hand. "We know. You've been watching Jean's ass instead."

Jean picks his head up intently.

"Can we just go please?" Mikasa requests quickly, lifting the scarf over her the bridge of her nose.

Eren shrugs. "We're just fucking with you. Let's go."

"Is no one gonna help me?" The trio turn their quizzical gazes to Jean. "I twisted my ankle before I collapsed," he continues, pointing to his foot. It does look a little out of place. He diverts his gaze to the blonde.

"Don't look at me," she responds defensively, "a frail girl like myself can't possibly carry you."

**_"Wait-!"_**

They start off into the forest thicket. "Sorry Jean!" Eren calls back, "We'll send you help!"

"Maybe!" Annie adds.

"…Annie?"

_"Hm?"_

"I love you."

Well, _that_ was certainly unexpected.


	4. The Hero Always Dies in the End

**IMPORANT A/N**: This chapter is rated M for the lime scene, but I put in a warning so you can skip it if you wish...but most of you probably won't, you perverted bastards. Blame Arkevil for convincing me to move such a scene from the later chapters into this one.

**Not so important A/N**: Follow me on tumblr if you want to see some updates I'll be posting during the progress of the next chapter (**_link is on my page_**). And thank you for so many reviews and favs last chapter! Every review made my day ^_^

_Let me know what you thought of this chapter!_

* * *

**Inside the Red Zone**

The number of words in this Eren x Annie story is too damn high by: **Euregatto**

* * *

_It's been almost a full month now._

Annie treads carefully as she crosses the suspended beam located in the backgrounds, a stretch of field meant for Trainees to work out on during their free days. She always chooses to test her balance on this piece of wood because the desire not to fall effectively distracts her thoughts. Her boots scuff as she turns a full 180 at the end of the oak bar, casting her gaze up to the handful of trainees scattered around – Jean sparring with Mikasa, Reiner and Ymir locked in a push-up contest to see who can impress Christa the most, Sasha demonstrating tracking techniques to Marco, Armin skimming through a book as Eren runs laps.

_It's been almost a full month now, and I still haven't told him I love him back._

Graduation was right around the corner and suddenly, almost overnight, Annie's mind had begun to wander. Her pondering kept her up into late hours of the night, forced her to space out during lectures in class… She thought about her predicament, about what Eren said, about Eren wanting to join the Scouting Legion and herself the Military Police; wondered if they would manage to keep this relationship alive, or if Eren would die out in the battlefield while she sat complacently behind the walls. _Fuck_, had she even given any thought into their future together? Her destiny? His fate?

That bastard brought her down to earth so hard she had spent the past four months thinking only about the _here_ and _now_, not the _when_ or _why_.

Eren didn't care about the future, really. He's focused on the task at hand, moving step-by-step one boundary at a time. His attention is fixed on the path he has laid out for himself and he plans on sticking through till the very end: he's going to eradicate all Titans, whether it takes him the rest of his life or if it costs him a leg. Was there any room in his future for her? Or was she just a present tense memory, not meant to last, just a prize to be tossed aside?

Annie turns her immaculate cobalt gaze to the boy as he pauses his lap, hands on his knees and chest heaving.

Come to think of it, was there any room in her future for _him?_ She's perfectly okay with being locked up in a cage – a flightless bird, beady eyes set on living an uneventful life within Wall Sina – but he desires to be free, by taking to the skies with the wind beneath his wings. They live in two completely separate worlds. She hadn't even given a blink towards the thought of a family. Marriage? Own house? _Kids?_

She wants kids. Which is weird for someone like her. But would she have them with him or someone else? Why the hell was she thinking about this _now_ of all times?

"Annie!" Mina remarks, slapping her hand against the beam and startling her friend awake. "Why'd you stop? Are you tired?"

_Very tired – of this, that, the other thing, Eren's lovey-dovey bullshit actually fucking affecting me – _"I can't do this right now!" She snaps. She immediately hops down, shoving her fists into her pockets and tromping briskly for the forest.

"Wait, Annie! Hey! What's wrong?! Come back!"

Eren and Armin watch the girls part, taller one headed for the thicket, probably intent on finding some solitude by the river as Mina calls out to her. "What's wrong with Annie?" Eren asks, gliding his fingers through his matted hair.

"I don't know."

"Should I go talk to her?"

Armin shrugs passively, slamming the book closed and tucking it under the crook of his arm. "Annie likes to be alone. Maybe you should give her some space until she cools off and try comforting her later."

"I don't think she likes being alone, she's just used to it by now." Eren pats the back of his neck with the towel Armin hands him. His emerald gaze never leaves Annie's figure, even as she disappears into the underbrush. "…I'm going to talk to her. I'll catch up with you later."

He waves the blond boy off and treks after the girl into the woods, weaving skillfully under fallen trunks and around branches as he makes his way down the slope to the river. Annie is perched at the edge of the distilled surface, staring into the crystal water as the despondent face glares back up. Wordlessly he kneels down beside her, dipping his cupped palms into the frigid liquids and splashing them up across his face. He repeats the process several times, soaking his hair, cleaning his neck, dabbing his skin dry.

"I've been thinking," she says after ten minutes of silence between them, "about graduation, about us."

He leans his head against the crook of her shoulder. "You're just nervous, Ann."

"I am. Very nervous." She weaves her fingers into the tight locks of his bangs. "I never gave a thought to _us_ – where we'll be after this is over; what we'll have left between us… I'm going to be inside the Walls, you're going to your death."

Eren gradually turns his gaze up to the entwined canopy of branches overhead. His crystallized eyes see something that is beyond her understanding, but she is aware it is there; it has no name, no solid form or sense, but it is hope, it is freedom, it is a foolish, beautiful dream like none she has witnessed before.

"Maybe one day there won't be any need for these walls… and you can come be free with me." He gently takes her hands in his and stretches them up so their bodies press together, hers soft beneath her hoodie and his radiating with warmth and life. "Haven't you always wanted to reach the sky? Or wondered what the mountains looked like?" His lips brush hers when he settles down to connect their stares. "Or, perhaps, you could see the ocean with me?"

"But it's dangerous," she counters, "you'll be killed as soon as you step foot outside the gate."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take."

"Why would you take a _chance_?" She seethes bitterly, jerking away from him. "Why would you risk your life for some stupid walls? Humanity isn't worth saving! Don't be a stupid bastard like my father."

Eren watches her quizzically, with his lips pressed into a thin line and gleaming eyes scanning her features for her expression. "I never said I wanted to save humanity," he amends finally, moving his hand up along her side, "I only want to give those who matter most a life outside this prison… and I want to protect my friends, and Armin, and Mikasa… but most of all"—he cups her cheek, guiding her face closer to his—"I want to protect you."

"No."

His clasp on her tightens. _"Annie…"_

"I said _no_. I don't want you to die for someone like me." She makes a move to pull away from him but he falls back into her, forcing her beneath him against the thick layer of verdant grass. "No, Eren, _please don't_. I'm not worth it."

"You are to me," he ushers. "You're the only choice I don't regret making, and nothing you say or do will ever change my mind. Alright?"

She nods against him. "I don't want you to die on me, Eren. Not now, not ever."

"I won't." He tucks his head into the crevice of her neck. "I promise I won't."

His fingers gradually flex under the waistline of her jeans, carefully exploring the expanse of her skin, massaging the hem of her shorts. He's so strong, so gentle, so warm and intoxicating. "I'll hold you to it then," she mutters sheepishly, eyelids fluttering shut to amplify the divine feel of his skin brushing wildfires across hers. "If you're lying I'll bring you back to life and kill you myself."

He laughs in his throat, his usual, light-hearted chuckle that answers her questions with something a little more genuine than a promise.

**_(Lime Scene Start – if uncomfortable please skip down to the end. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED…This was bound to happen sooner or later. Don't look at me like that.)_**

She spreads her legs when familiar digits trace the contours of her womanhood and cants her hips upwards, sucking in a sharp breath, sliding her hand up into the tangled mess of his damp hair. His thermal lips skim the pulse point of her neck and he finds the heat of her torso below. His middle finger skitters over and up to her sensitive bundle of nerves; he rocks his knuckle down and up, rolling her clit around playfully.

Her resounding moan vibrates every bone in his chest and he glides up to the pad of his finger, running circles and gradually working at the hem of her shorts. He dips under the fabric and to her warmth, his skin igniting fires against the tendrils of her sensitive flesh.

"Fuck," she utters, unclipping the button of her jeans and sliding her zipper down to give him space.

That's her grant to continue. It's all he needs.

He strokes her labia with slender fingers, parting her folds and pressing against her warmth. She's already dripping, just for him, and he relishes in the fact that no other man has ever produced such a feeling in her like this – that she can lose control with him so easily, and that _he's_ the one who made her such a mess, not the damned thought of anyone else.

She nods into his shoulder and he slides into her familiar opening, right down to the base of his knuckle, enticing her legs to open wider with the gentle stroke of his free hand along her inner thigh. "_Eren_," she ushers and he kisses the curve of her chin, moving inside of her, positioning his calloused thumb against her nerves.

He strokes her clit and pumps his single digit in and out of her, her walls collapsing around his intruding finger, muscles in her torso clenching and unwinding with every wave of fire that rockets through her body. Her blush darkens the fair pigment of her cheeks. She tosses her head back, groaning into the pleasure, letting him nip at the pallid canvas of her neck.

Taking that as his permission, he moves faster. Her nails alternate between digging into the flesh of his neck and grasping the ends of his cocoa hair. A sudden jerk of her body sends a rigid jolt through her spine; she's hit her climax – her body is tightening along her thighs and hips, waist rolling down on its own accord to match his movements, harsh pants ebbing into gasps of his name.

"_Eren_ – _don't stop_ – _I'm close_ – I'm so _close_-!" She comes with a gasp and warmth leaks across his hand. The intense, all-consuming ecstasy slams through the nerves of her body, shattering through her veins and up into her brain; her mouth is parted in a silent cry, back arched up into a perfect curve, hips pressing down onto his hand as he eases her orgasm out with the careful strokes of his thumb.

**_(END LIME)_**

As she comes down from her high he tucks his head into the crook of her neck, breathing in her faint lemon and sugar scent, withdrawing his hand from her jeans. "I love you, Annie," he whispers into her.

She merely brings her arms up around his shoulders. "Yeah," she says blithely, "I know you do."

Annie Leonhardt would never properly tell him how she felt in return, but by the time she would ever receive the courage to, it would be too late.

* * *

At one point during their graduation night Annie had told Eren that she believed the world revolved against her.

She had every reason to, of course. Her father was more of her military commander than her real parent; she had the impotent fear of the dark like she was some damn five year old; she broke every vow she every made by deciding to let Eren take her heart like he had torn it out of her chest with his bare hands… yes, nothing had gone according to plan in the end, but she also never suspected for things to get as bad as they did.

Some days later Trost's gate is breached, and a few hours before the trainee regimen holds the briefing they are split into groups. Annie isn't surprised to wind up with Reiner and three other loses from the middle ranks of their class (again, because the world has always turned against her), and she's certain the universe is out to bring her to ruin when she finds out from Bertholdt that Eren's group had already departed for Trost.

She didn't get a chance to say good-bye. _She didn't get a chance to say good-bye._

She's never been one for worrying about the well-being of other people… but, unfortunately, accident-prone Eren Jaeger isn't like _other people_. The thrill of danger clouds his vision like a storm above the horizon, ascending gradually through the brim of his body until it shrouds the veil of his consciousness. She worries about him, sure, and she definitely fears for Hannah, Franz, and Mina's safety all at the same time. _If that reckless bastard gets Mina killed I'll feed him to an Aberrant._

As a result of her perfectly rational fear (rational to her, anyway) Annie immediately knew there was something wrong when Armin returned to the gathering point team-less, dragging behind him Hannah, who is still stained with blood **_(Franz's blood)_** and gaze locked on the tier beneath her. Annie doesn't want to admit it – doesn't like to admit it – doesn't think she can admit it – but the realization that Franz is gone unnerves her. There is a sunken pang of guilt in her stomach, like her gut is filling up with lead.

She occasionally casts Armin a glance as he sits against a wall with his legs tucked into his chest, but the more she looks the heavier her gut feels within the enclosed cavern of her torso. There's a forlorn sense of dread poisoning the back of her mind.

_Something isn't right._

"Annie!"

The blonde girl recognizes the voice and cranes her head around to Eren's sister. For some reason, Armin buries his head into his knees and starts to pule against his jeans, still soaked through with the sweat and blood of the day. "Oh, Mikasa, you're back."

"Have you seen Eren?"

"No"—she tilts her head in the boy's direction—"but Armin's over there if you want to talk to him. Good luck, he hasn't said a word since he found us."

Mikasa nods her thanks and jogs over to him. "Armin!"

Annie brushes them off and turns her attention to the city up in flames around them. The Titans haven't made it this far yet – or perhaps they did, and they moved on because everyone else in this area was devoured already. "Reiner," she starts and he peers down at her from the corner of his eye, "if we don't have any other way out, should we-?"

"No. But if we're doing it, we're doing it as a team."

Without warning Armin screams. They whip around to face him as he falls to his hands and knees at Mikasa's legs, wailing all of his pent up rage, bereavement, guilt and _anguish_ into the shingles of the roof. "I couldn't save him! I'm so fucking weak; I let a _Titan_ eat my **_best friend!_** All because I was too weak to save him!"

She fumbles for words, the hilts in her grip trembling in uneasy disbelief. "Ar-Armin…"

"He's _dead_, Mikasa! **_They're all dead!"_**

Silence rocks the trainees and they fall silent on cue. Off in the breadth of the horizon the Titans demolish Trost, here the soldiers stand in collective awe, and the lost hope of the future is somewhere in between.

Armin shrieks against the tier again. "Mina Carolina, Millius Zermusky, Nack Tias, Thomas Wagner, and Eren Jaeger all died valiantly in the front lines of battle!" He tucks his chin against his chest, heavy tears splattering against the structure beneath him, voice lowering into a barely audible whisper. "I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry, Mikasa… I couldn't save them, I couldn't save _him_-!"

Annie has long since tuned out the voices around her. Her mind buzzes with white noise, her hands noticeably shake and her blades emit metallic clicks as they quake in her grasp. _Eren… and Mina… are… dead? How can… That's not… _An explosion of fury shatters its way through her nervous system, rocketing up along her spine and igniting every sensor in her brain._ **That bastard fucking promised me he'd come back!** _

An acute stab of pain, like a hole has blown wide open in the center of her chest, sends her body haywire and she hits the roof on her knees, supporting herself with one arm, wrapping the other around her torso. She gags on air that has long since expelled from her lungs.

**_"Annie!"_**

Darkness is creeping into her vision like skeletal fingers. _He promised he promised he promised that bastard made a fucking promise-! _Her memories are stitched together with the scent of the fire side, the bitterness of charcoal on her tongue, the translucent afterglow of laughter. It smells like the flowers of Mina's jacket when they hugged, sounds like the drawled sigh in Franz's throat, tastes like the piquant stew Hannah had delicately crafted, feels like the calloused pads of Eren's digits as he strokes his fingers through her hair and runs them carefully over the scar defining her side.

Her mind is crumbling in her hands. Her consciousness is fading. Her body is steadily falling into the abyssal silence awaiting her somewhere below her reality; a place that is quiet in Hannah's arms. The overwhelming nothingness is devoid of Reiner's muted shouting, barely allows her to notice Hannah's tears plashing her brow.

The world still turns against her, and now Annie Leonhardt has been swept up in its flow.

_And I still never told you I loved you, selfish bastard..._


	5. The Key to My Heart and a Broken Arm

**IMPORANT A/N**: Erm, why I'm very very very very early is because...uh...I just started writing and couldn't stop... yeah, it was one of those days. Well, sorry to ruin your day regardless~

**Not so important A/N**: Follow me on tumblr if you want to see some updates I'll be posting during the progress of the next chapter (**_link is on my page_**). And thank you for so many reviews and favs last chapter! Every review made my day ^_^

_Let me know what you thought of this chapter!_

_**Important Edit**: In case you were wondering, this won't be angsty for very long; these Trost chapters call for it though. Once I'm out of Trost it'll go back to a standard humor/romance/friendship scenario, and return to normal until further notice._

* * *

**Inside the Red Zone**

This Eren x Annie story is why I can't have nice things by: **Euregatto**

* * *

**_Annie…_**

_Eren? Eren, is that you? It's cold here… and dark… Where am I? I can't move my body. – Hey, I'm talking to you. Where are we? I can't see a damned thing._

**_Weakling_**_…_

_I… I'm a what? Eren?_

**_Traitor_**_…_

_No I'm not! Eren, what are you saying?!_

**_Murderer –_**

_Eren!_

**_Heartless_**_ –_

_Eren, stop!_

**_MONSTER!_**

_NO!_

**_YOU KILLED THEM ALL!_**

_EREN PLEASE STOP!_

**_I TRUSTED YOU, ANNIE, I TRUSTED YOU! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?! YOU MURDERER!_**

_I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN!_

**_YOU MONSTER!_**

_EREN!_

**_I TRUSTED YOU! I LOVED YOU!_**

Annie abruptly stirs from the obsidian void of her mind when her dream overwhelms her lingering sense of existence (the darkness is ignited by emerald orbs, verdant as the forest and ablaze like the sun), and she stumbles along her nightmares until her brain slams her down into reality.

And then she awakens.

Her eyelids flutter open with the grace of butterfly wings, and her sapphire gaze glistens with newfound alertness and clarity. Her fingers flex to grasp the edges of the sheets beneath her. The ceiling above her is smudged like brick red and bark brown paint along a canvas, rafters blending in messily with the blurred edges of the structure. This place holds a certain, unfamiliarly familiar presence within the back of her mind.

She is awake.

_Where am I? How long was I out for? _

Realization hits her with all the gentleness of a careening boulder as her previous nightmare replays in her mind. "Eren!" She gasps and shoots upright with a start, casting her frantic eyes around the perimeter of the room. It is an infirmary wing judging by the beds and couplets of soldiers scattered throughout, silently treating minor injuries. The floor is baked by the setting sunlight streaming in through the windows, igniting amber fires across the structures of the pillars and the copper hue of Hannah's hair.

The girl is at Annie's bed side, hazel gaze studying her friend carefully. "Annie," she mutters wistfully, almost hopefully, and somewhat despondently, "how are you feeling?"

Taking a moment to absorb her present situation and the fragments of her memories colliding into place within her head, the blonde positions herself properly, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and pressing the arch of her palm to her throbbing brow. "_Mm_… Hannah, what happened?"

"You went into shock. Reiner and I had to carry you back to the supply tower." Hannah slides her hand over Annie's, entwining their slender digits when the blonde reflexively tries to flinch away. She lowers her voice to a dismal whisper and Annie wants to break her arm for so selflessly remitting unwanted, dejected sympathy and kindness to the soldier in front of her. "Annie, I'm so sorry… I'm so, _so_ sorry…"

"_Don't_," she hisses bitterly, snapping her arm free of Hannah's touch like it's some kind of potent venom, "I don't want any damn pity like I'm some damn brat! I'm not like you or any of these emotionally unstable _cowards!"_

All pairs of eyes in the room turn to the girl but she doesn't seem to notice – or, rather, she just doesn't care. Annie has never cared. Hannah furrows her brow, clearly taken aback by the opposing girl's sudden outburst. "Annie, I–"

_"Fucking dammit, _what the hell's your _problem_?! Go cry me a river, build a bridge and get the fuck over it! Franz is **dead**, Mina's **dead**, Eren's **dead!** **_They're all dead, Hannah!"_**

Hannah winces as the comment hits home and burns its way through her body, like liquid fire has been poured into her veins. It hurts. It really, really hurts, and Annie realizes that because she does. Not. _Stop_.

"We're not friends! Get that through your fucking head! I don't need you, and I _certainly_ don't need anyone else! I let my guard down _once_ and if _this_ is what's going to be the outcome every damned time, then I don't want to feel a damned thing anymore!" The sudden silence as loud as thunder settles between them. She tucks her chin against her chest, fingers gripping the necklace residing beneath her sweatshirt. _"I don't want to feel a damn thing anymore…"_

Hannah binds her arms around Annie's shoulders, pulling them together with all the force of two opposite magnets. Annie huffs in surprise. "It's okay, Annie… it's okay if you don't want my sympathy, I get it"—her grasp becomes unbearably tight and Annie's fists bunch up the cotton material of her shirt in return, sapphire orbs wide with shock and gleaming with tears—"but I'm giving it to you anyway, whether you like it or not."

Annie sighs into the trainee's shoulder. "There's no arguing with you…"

Hannah pulls back a moment later, feigning a smile Annie sees right through. "I've lost so much today – Mina, who was my first friend; Franz, my first real crush, my first _kiss_… I don't want to lose you too. So we're going to have to be strong… Let's be strong together from now on. Okay?"

Annie wants to dead-pan that statement with something along the lines of _you're the only one who's weak _but decides to keep her mouth shut instead. Reiner appears in her line of vision, intently moving towards them. "Reiner," she remarks and Hannah turns to face him as he draws up to them. "You look like you saw a ghost."

"Can you fight?"

Annie arches her eyebrow at the sudden question. "Yes, I'm okay now. I think I can."

"Good. Come with me."

"Wait, Reiner, what in"—

* * *

—"the hell are you dragging me into?"

She observes the detailed diagram of the tower's interior supply room with weary eyes, casting them across the sketches of arrows and sleek parchment paper barely aglow with the few candles they have left in the room. Armin's hand sweeps across the ridges of the margins until he reaches the elevator. "This," he says, tapping the shaft with his forefinger, "is where we'll be. When we pull the triggers to blind the Titans you will descend from support beam eight and down any Titan in your range."

The circular table is surrounded by the top ten of their class (or what's left of them, anyway) and Armin, who is taking charge of the strategy in full. Annie casts her weary gaze up to him, wondering exactly how he had recovered from Eren's death so quickly, and eventually turns her intuitive expression to Mikasa, who has an abnormal clarity in her orbs.

"And I have the dangerous job because…?"

"Your skill level," Armin responds matter-of-factly. "Your strength will guarantee a solid kill, and your aptitude without your gear is a dire importance."

"You're not the only one anyway," Reiner amends passively, "we'll have what's left of our top fifteen on all eleven beams, and I'll be on five."

Annie rolls her eyes. "Your fat ass will break the damn thing."

"Fuck you, half-pint!"

Marco steps between them to break them up, swiping his fingers across the sketches of twelve, featureless, pallid figurines spotted throughout the room. "If you look here, you'll see that there are more of them then there are of us. Someone will have to take two. I'm betting you, Christa"—he nods to her and she inclines her head in return—"since you have a better jump."

"It's settled then," Armin declares, rising from his seat, "we're all set to commence with the plan. Let's ready the guns. The strike team should take the back stairwell and get ready on your beams."

Annie tails behind Reiner as the strike unit ditches their burdensome gears for the swords. They disappear through the back door into the staircase that descends on a spiral, down, down, steeply diving towards the ground below. Her cobalt gaze never leaves Mikasa's back. "Mikasa," she starts and the girl replies with a small 'hm?'. "Are you alright? You seem too okay for… you know."

"I'm fine," she responds in her typical, monotone voice, "are you?"

_I wish, _Annie tells herself bitterly, sliding her fingers up to the pulse point of her neck. She misses the tender marks Eren would leave along the arch of her porcelain flesh so she could mull over them later. _I wish for many things… for this nightmare to be over, for Eren to come back, for me to return to the day we met and avoid ever falling in love with him. _She touches her sternum where her necklace resides beneath her hoodie. Her heart has stopped throbbing painfully, at least, but now it feels like there is an empty void in her chest.

"He would want us to live." Annie glances back at the opposing girl when her abrupt comment breaks the distilled silence of the stairwell. Mikasa raises her sword to her forehead, dipping her head down as if praying to his soul, wherever it may be: in Heaven, in the ground, lost in the realm of the world. After a beat she lowers the blade. "He would want us to fight. He would want us to see tomorrow."

_He would want me to be happy, probably, _she muses grimly. _But I'm not supposed to be. And what little happiness I let myself feel died with Eren, that suicidal jackass. Didn't he ever think of anyone but himself? _She clutches the necklace beneath the fabric of her shirt. _Did **I** ever think of anyone but myself…?_

"Are we sure this is going to work?" Connie's voice brings her back to reality.

"Of course," Reiner replies with a grunt, whipping his sword up into the air. The metallic gleam reflects the candlelight. "And if not, we can just shove our blades up their assholes!"

Connie seems thoroughly amazed. "They have two weaknesses?!"

Annie tunes them out until they reach the entrance to the ceiling rafters. Sasha skips across the pillars as quietly as possible and with perfect balance, treading over the collection of Titans wandering around aimlessly below. Christa and Connie follow her carefully, Bertholdt branching off left, Reiner to the right, Annie up, across, and back down, Mikasa positioning herself on the one beam closest to the door.

Annie reaches into her shirt, pulls out the necklace – a perfectly cut Aquamarine crystal the width of her two first fingers, a knuckle and a half in height; shaped into a square-edged heart, encased in thin wire to keep it suspended from the string. Eren had dug it up along the river bank one day when they had taken a break during 3DMG practice, and delicately washed away the mud to make sure it was real.

_"It must be really old."_

_"Crystals are worth a fortune, Eren. Only the Nobles can afford those. You should sell it."_

_"Or you can keep it."_

_"Why?"_

_"Well, I don't care about money, really. And besides, if you have the heart and I technically have a key, I can have the key to your heart!" He catches her fist when she playfully swings at his chest. "Whoa! I'm just saying!"_

_"I technically haven't given you my heart."_

_"You gave me the rest of your body without complaint – owowowow! Stop it Annie, you're breaking my damn arm!"_

She scoffs under her breath and presses her lips to the surface, feeling the heartbeat of the sky and the rapids of the waterfalls. Now's not the time to think about such silly things. "Okay," she whispers to herself, pressing the balls of her feet to the tier beneath her, hands on her hilts. "Okay Eren, I'll fight… just for you." The elevator descends on cue, lowering gradually towards the eye-level of the Titans in the room, which all turn instantly and shamble towards their meal. _I broke a promise to my father because of you, and I can't back out of it now._

**_"FIRE!"_**

Explosions of gunpowder rocket through the supply tower and shake the very beam beneath Annie's palms. She instinctively launches off the rafter, descending into the fray below and sinking her blades into the thick flesh of the closest creature's neck.

_A frail maiden like myself shouldn't be putting her life on the line like this._

Sasha screams somewhere to Annie's right and she snaps her gaze over at the girl scrambling away from the Deviant that had knocked her aside during the slaughter. Annie reflexively kicks off the falling Aberrant's body and grapples a rigging rope, swinging up on an arc, releasing at her highest point against the ceiling so the planes of her boots press against the boards. Her body suspends itself like its drifting through still waters, limitless and free, silhouetted against the contrasting dark.

_You want me to fight –_

She twirls her torso through the torrents as she descends, cutlasses slicing through the thin air, and rafters turn to blood-stained walls turn to the Titans below. Her flashing blades connect with the length of the Deviant's spine.

_And you want me to live. I'll try to live… that's the right thing to do, isn't it?_

She lands in a crouch, knees absorbing the shock against the wooden tier painted over with the dried blood of her fellow trainees, sword dividing in perfect half and steaming shards of broken brand clattering to the floor. Her cobalt glare turns upwards to the auburn before her, cheeks stained with tears that match the curtain of red beneath them, cracked lips trembling as she mutters her sincerest gratitude.

_…I'm sorry, Eren, but I don't know the answer to that anymore._

* * *

_"Annie."_

Blood has dried underneath her fingernails and in the linings of her hands, crumbling beneath the ridges of her flesh as he flexes her knuckles outwards and connects the now filled gas canisters to her gear ports. The stench of copper – _the spilled blood of her comrades, of Franz and Mina and Eren and every other poor bastard she no longer cares for – _poisons her blood and she massages her pulsating temple as a mild headache comes on.

"Annie, hey, look at me."

"What?" She spits back, hastily clipping the contraptions to her belt and harness. Her frigid glare turns up to Reiner as her fingers expertly fasten her hooks. "I'm not in the mood to talk right now."

Reiner inclines his head as a submissive nod. "I know, I'm not either. Too much has happened to us today, and I'm well aware of that, but there's something we need to see." He starts towards the exit doors, expecting Annie to follow him, which she does. She pulls up to his side and he continues. "While you were out a very interesting class of Titan showed up. It's been outside this whole time wrecking the place apart."

They reach the outside courtyard and zip-line up to the edge of the roof. Jean, Mikasa, and Armin are already there, observing the chaos unfolding before them. Annie tilts her head as the several Titans shred the green-eyed goblin-like Titan apart, feasting on it instead of the soldiers. She figures that it must be a Shifter, not one she's ever heard of before, but one all the same.

"Look!" Armin exclaims suddenly, gesturing to the end of the road, "it's the Titan that ate Thomas!"

As if responding to Armin's cry the goblin-Titan shrieks, intense, blood-curdling roar sweeping through the street. It lunges forward with little effort, knocking side the Titans clinging to its body and sinking its jagged teeth into the Thomas-eater's neck. It lifts the lanky creature up above it, swings the limp body around like a sword to mow down the opposing monsters racing for it, and finally launches the blond beast into the nearest building.

"Shit," Reiner utters breathlessly, "that damned thing doesn't need any arms."

Without warning, the Titan screams its triumph and rage into the sky – and _falls over, _collapsing face-down against the cobblestone walkway. Vibrations rock the foundation beneath their feet.

"It wore itself out," Jean remarks, unsheathing his sword with a metallic hiss, "let's put it out of its misery before it decides to eat us too, shall we?"

Its body detonates with a cataclysmic _boom_ and steam explodes outwards, clouding the field with debris, embers of its rotting flesh, and Jean instinctively throws his back to the blast, tucking Mikasa against his chest. Shrapnel harmlessly deflects from the trainees' thick uniforms and ash entwines with their hair. Pillars of billowing smoke suffocate the air around them as he draws away from her, Mikasa unfazed by his unusual protectiveness, and the French boy steps towards Annie as she moves to the edge of the roof to get a clearer look around.

Jean peers through the thicket. "Is that…?"

"There's someone in its back," Annie utters, and without warning Mikasa zip-lines by her, swinging on a wide arc towards the pavement. "Mikasa! Where are you going?!" When the Eurasian disappears from view Annie divides her attention between the rest of the group and the haze. "Did I miss something?"

Reiner taps her shoulder. "Let me go after her. Stay here in case any Titans come around." His hooks whip outwards with simultaneous clicks of his hilts and he dives into the street between the buildings, hulky silhouette fading into the thinning cloud.

They stand in a collective silence for several minutes before the shadows of their comrades reappear. And positioned on Reiner's back is an unconscious Eren Jaeger.

He vaults up to the perch to the awaiting team and Mikasa briskly pulls Eren down against her frame, sliding to her knees, wailing hysterically in her brother's chest. "Eren…" Armin mutters in sheer disbelief, awe, denial, abatement of his fear, collapsing at his friends' sides, forehead gradually falling into Eren's shoulder and arms wrapping around them both. "What happened… Eren, what happened to you…?"

Annie is staring at Mikasa and Armin as they sob into Eren's limp form – her cobalt gaze is devoid of the colors of the sky, blank, emotionless, **_lifeless_**.

"Hey, Reiner?" She whispers and he glances at her with this kind of empathy that almost makes her want to jump off the roof. The same kind Hannah had given her, and it helps Annie reach a conclusion about a previously disheartening idea. "I think… I'm going to stop feeling now; stop loving him, stop caring about everyone else, and just go back to the way I used to be."

He doesn't know what to say to that, so he opts on saying nothing at all.


End file.
